DOCUMENT PROCESSING SYSTEM AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF, PROGRAM, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

• US 20100082709A1
• Filed: 09/17/2009
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Masahito
• Granted Patent: US 8,370,373 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/812
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems

Abstract

This invention is directed to a document processing system and control method thereof. The system stores a plurality of items of document data each containing metadata pertaining to the contents of each item of document data, and relation information representing the relations between the plurality of items of document data. When scanned image data or facsimile-received image data is input, document data related to the input image data is specified among the plurality of items of stored document data, based on the metadata contained in each item of document data. Relation information representing the relation between the input image data and the specified related document data is stored. Even document data obtained from a paper document is able to be stored as document data subjected to search processing.

Claims

1. A document processing system comprising:

a storage unit that stores a plurality of items of document data, each containing metadata pertaining to a content of each item of document data, and relation information representing relations between the plurality of items of document data;

an input unit that inputs image data;

a related document specifying unit that specifies document data related to the image data input by the input unit among the plurality of items of document data stored in the storage unit, based on the metadata contained in each item of document data; and

a control unit that controls the storage unit to store relation information representing a relation between the image data input by the input unit and the related document data specified by the related document specifying unit.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the related document specifying unit determines similarity between the input image data and each item of document data stored in the storage unit, and specifies the related document data based on the determined similarity.

3. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a reading unit that reads an image on a document to generate image data based on the image, wherein the input unit inputs the image data generated by the reading unit.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the input unit is able to input document data containing metadata, and

if the input unit inputs document data containing metadata, the related document specifying unit specifies document data related to input document data input by the input unit based on the metadata contained in the input document data and the metadata contained in each item of document data stored in the storage unit.

5. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a search unit that searches for document data stored in the storage unit; and

a presentation unit that presents, based on the relation information, the document data found by the search unit and document data related to the found document data in correspondence with each other.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the storage unit to store metadata contained in related document data specified by the related document specifying unit as metadata of the input image data input by the input unit.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the control unit controls the storage unit to store metadata contained in related document data specified by the related document specifying unit as metadata of the input image data together with a value based on a degree of relation between the specified related document data and the input image data.

8. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a decision unit that determines document ranks of a plurality of items of document data stored in the storage unit, based on the relation information.

9. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a notification unit that notifies presence of document data related to the image data specified by the related document specifying unit, in response to input of image data by the input unit.

10. A method of controlling a document processing system having a storage unit which stores a plurality of items of document data, each containing metadata pertaining to a content of each item of document data, and relation information representing relations between the plurality of items of document data, the method comprising the steps of:

inputting image data;

specifying document data related to the image data input in the inputting step among the plurality of items of document data stored in the storage unit, based on the metadata contained in each item of document data; and

controlling the storage unit to store relation information representing a relation between the image data input in the inputting step and the related document data specified in the specifying step.

11. A program for causing a computer to execute a document processing system control method defined in claim 10.

12. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute a document processing system control method defined in claim 10.